I’m implementing Drag & Drop for an application of mine so a user can drag some item to a folder. Regardless of the programming language/Gui Framework I used I never liked implementing Drag & Drop code at all.
Further I often see computer users who don’t use Drag & Drop if you don’t tell them exactly how it works. They are searchig for an “Add”-Button instead of just dragging the item to the folder for instance (I have seen this in iTunes several times).
So I ask myself if there isn’t a better alternative to the Drag & Drop paradigm. You could for instance blend in context sensitive buttons near every item when a folder is highlighted. The button-click would then add the item. Usability-wise not the best example but maybe you know better ones.
Do you know nice alternatives, applications that implement this “item-to-folder-functionality” without resorting to Drag & Drop?
It makes me think of the ‘Move to’ function in GMail. You select the messages your want to move with the checkboxes. On top, there is a dropdown button (with autocomplete support to easily locate the label you want) that allows you to move the messages to the label/folder. No drag and drop and intuative indeed.
(That said, I find DnD very natural, I definitely would consider it if building a GUI)